Hospitals are under more pressure than ever — to deliver excellent patient care, treat a growing and aging population and deal with emerging health trends and technologies, just to name a few. And often, this all must be accomplished with less resources year to year.
Many small- to medium-sized hospitals struggle to strike this balance between delivering the level of care patients deserve and achieving the operational efficiency needed to thrive. Hospital executives and administrators have to make difficult decisions in deciding what services are essential and which may need to be adjusted.
One area that too often takes the brunt of budgetary constraints is a hospital’s ability to deliver physical therapy and rehabilitation services. While physical therapy is a critical part of the recovery process for many patients dealing with disease, injury or who have just undergone surgery, it is generally not seen as a first-line treatment for hospitals. The decision is often made to have physicians, nurses and other staff members perform the most basic rehabilitation services and then refer patients to an off-site physical therapy provider.
However, physical therapy and rehabilitation performed on-site at a hospital provides many advantages for both patients and hospital staff that should not be ignored. The good news for hospitals unable to overcome the operational challenges required of running an internal physical therapy and rehabilitation is that a solution exists in the form of physical therapy contracted services provided by a dedicated and focused partner.
